leftwikiaorg-20200213-history
1997
1996 1997 1998 Events * Year of the School shooting. * Year of the arson attack on abortion providers. Rightwing extremists conduct arson attacks on abortion providers in Oklahoma (twice in January), Georgia (January), Virginia (February), North Carolina (March), Iowa (March), California (twice in March), Montana (March), Washington (May), Oregon (May and October), Alabama (May), and New York (December). * Comet Hale-Bopp pays a visit to the inner solar system. * China's population is 1,236.26 million. * Jared Diamond publishes Guns, Germs and Steel. * Ross Gellspan publishes The Heat is On. * Dick Morris publishes Behind the Oval Office: Winning the Presidency in the Nineties. * Arizona Gov. Fife Symington is forced to resign after being was convicted of fraud for filing false financial statements to banks. Conviction overturned in 1999. * Aslan Maskhadov elected President of Chechnya. * Eritrea launches its own currency, the Nakfa. * Kazakh capital is moved from Almaty to Akmola. Timeline January * January 30: Dr. Jerome Kassirer publishes editorial, "Federal Foolishness and Marijuana" in the New England Journal of Medicine stating that the, "federal policy that prohibits physicians from alleviating suffering by prescribing marijuana for seriously ill patients is misguided, heavy-handed, and inhumane." Dru's World February * February 2: School shooting by 14 year old in Moses Lake, Alaska leaves three dead. * February 12: Darwin Day * February 17: Nawaz Sharif begins second term as Pakistani Prime Minister. * February 19: School shooting by 16 year old in Bethel Lake, Alaska leaves 2 dead and 2 wounded. * February 19-20: NIH does the bureaucratic evasion dance by saying that more research is needed to assess the potential of medical marijuana. Delaying tactic obvious to everyone. March * March 26: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright delivers a speech at Georgetown University and argues that sanctions on Iraq probably will not end until Saddam Hussein is replaced. * March 26: Thirty-nine men and women, members of the "Heaven's Gate" cult, commit suicide in Rancho Santa Fe near San Diego, California. Q: Why did the Heaven's Gate members commit suicide? A: Because they lived in a $1.3 million mansion but had to sleep in bunk beds. April * April 30: ABC airs episode of TV sitcom Ellen in which Ellen DeGeneres announces "I'm gay." May * May 21: Three year old Lam Hoi-ka dies at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Hong Kong of H5N1 or Avian flu. This was not previously known to infect humans. June * June 4: Marie Ségolène Royal becomes French Vice-Minister of Education. * June 18: UN Security Council expresses concerns over Iraq's threatening actions against UNSCOM helicopters and crews. * June 21: Iraq once again refuses access to UN inspection teams to sites under investigation, UN Security Council passes Resolution 1115, which condemns Iraq's actions and demands that it allow UNSCOM's team immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access to any sites for inspection and officials for interviews. * June 28: Cuban forensic team announces that it has recovered the remains (sans the hands) of Che Guevara and six of his comrades in Bolivia. July * July 1: China assumes control of Hong Kong from Britain. * July 5: Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen leads a coup d'etat against fellow Cambodian Prime Minister Ranariddh. August * August: 185,000 teamsters go on strike against UPS, bring it to a standstill and win most of their demands. * August 18: Mikhail Manevich, deputy governor of St. Petersburg, is assassinated. September * September 1: Federal Hourly Minimum Wage is raised, this time from $4.75 to $5.15 an hour. Real wages have ben declining against nominal wages since 1984. This increase includes a dishonorable concession to conservatives, a 90 day youth subminimum wage for workers under 20 at $4.25. October * October 1: School shooting by 16 year old in Pearl, Mississippi leaves 2 dead and 7 wounded. * October 31-November 2: Muslim sectarian rioting in Purwakatra in West Java. November * November 24-26: Muslim sectarian rioting in Pekalongan in Central Java. December * December 1: School shooting by 14 year old West Paducah, Kentucky (Pre-school prayer circle) leaves 3 dead and 5 wounded. * December 15: School shooting by 14 year old in Stamps, Arkansas leaves 2 wounded. * December 24: Muslim sectarian ritoing in Jakarta. * December 25: AsiaSat 3, a Hughes HS 601 HP satellite, was launched on a Russian Proton rocket. Fourth stage fails, leaving the satellite in a useless orbit.